Hitting The Slopes
Just a heads-up for anyone planning to visit New Zealand in the future – some information we would have found very useful – something you won’t find in any of the travel brochures either. When there’s a fire in a small town in NZ, the entire town is woken by what sounds like a roaring air raid siren that continues to sound (10 -15 minutes) until enough volunteers are wrenched from the comfort of their Sealy Posturepedics to show up at the scene. This morning, at around 3am, one such siren pierced the still of the wee hours and jolted us from our dreams, thrusting us into a state of spontaneous panic. Was it an earthquake? Was there a tsunami? Were we being attacked by invading troops? Would the ski lifts be closed today? Had they run out of coffee? A few of us gathered in a concerned group, looking for answers – speculation was rife. There was absolutely no-one on the street and apart from the whine of the incessant siren, it was eerily quiet. Maybe the siren meant “under no circumstances leave your houses”? We just didn’t know. Some of the blissfully heavy sleepers in our group (like Sam) missed all the commotion entirely. Conceding there was nothing we could do and seeing there was no obvious answer or impending danger, we shuffled back to bed. Still feeling a little uneasy, I Googled until I had an answer but by the time I’d figured it out, everyone was asleep!
Today we were hitting the slopes! For some in our group, it was the first time they’d been in the snow – Maisy included – so there was a real sense of excitement as we all donned our recommended 4 layers and waddled out to the bus like Michelin Men piled with gloves, scarves, beanies and goggles. The bus ride up the mountain was not for the faint hearted! Our bus driver, Tim, pulled over to attach the snow chains and announced: “well, we are about to head up the mountain. Those of you who are scared of heights, avert your eyes!”
We wound around and around as we climbed higher on the very narrow winding road. Some parts of the road had guard rails – at least a small buffer to the cliffs we were teetering on – but lots didn’t! As the big bus turned widely around the twists and turns it sometimes felt like we were only going to avoid the plunging depths below by the narrowest of margins! To top this off, the wind was howling through the bus like a ready-boiled kettle, its power periodically thrusting the bus doors open! Tufts of grass on the mountainside were blowing flat with the force of the wind and trees were bending. We were all very relieved to pull into the car park at Mount Hutt!
The snow-covered mountains were magnificent; making the hairy climb totally worth it. We piled out of the bus en masse and into Guest Services to collect our passes and equipment. It was a veritable frenzy as we all clambered to clip on boots, grab poles, tighten bindings..and make it outside for the start of our lessons. Maisy and Chloe went into the ski school for the day, Sam and I jumped into a ski lesson and Toby and Ross opted for snowboards. Resplendent in our Aldi snow gear, a quick glance around the mountain revealed we weren’t the only ones to have taken advantage of the Aldi ski gear sale. In fact, a good percentage of the mountain was wearing the same clothes! Even in our group, Toby, Ben and Sean had the same jacket and Sandra and I looked like twins. We could’ve all been in an Aldi catalogue!
Most of the boys in the footy team tried snowboarding and a few skied. Most of the parents skied. Those who were snow sport aficionados leapt straight on the chair lift and didn’t look back all day. It had been 15 years since I’d ventured out onto the slippery slopes so I thought I’d have a lesson as a refresher. Our Scottish inststructor, Megan (pronounced “M-egg-in”) was great. She was full of enthusiasm and had us all doing big sweeping turns in no time. In fact, there was no one in the group who didn’t get the hang of it and there were smiles all round.
The skies were clear when we arrived but the wind was biting, every one of our prescribed four layers very necessary! After lunch though, the ski resort was blanketed in cloud and we had a white-out. You seriously couldn’t see more than a metre in front of you which made it interesting on the slopes! One minute it would look like there wasn’t a soul on the hill but the next, you were about to collide with ten people! The beginner’s lift, the “Magic Carpet” became the “Mysterious Magical Carpet”. It felt like we were in a dream sequence in a movie. It was so weird!
By the end of the day, Sam, Ross and I had both ventured up the quad chair and were feeling pretty stoked. A big group of 10 from our tour – the extreme crew as I called them – went up to the summit in the late afternoon and found themselves in the sunshine above the clouds! The view from their photographs was stunning, looking like it was snapped from a plane.
Poor Tobes was a bit under the weather with his cough and cold worsening as the day wore on. He mucked around with Dylan on some toboggans in the afternoon but was feeling pretty crook the whole day. It was steadily raining for a couple of hours with a bit of snow towards the end. By four o’clock we were all done, uncomfortable ski boots off (those things have to be the world’s most uncomfortable footwear!) and we plonked our tired, wet bodies back on the bus, ready to endure another scenic (treacherous) descent along that road. It’d be fair to say this bus had done its fair share of trips to and from the ski fields and wasn’t in tip top condition. The heater obviously didn’t work for a start. Another issue was the de-mister. The window was constantly fogging up and visibility was obscured to say the least. One of the tour dads, Max, offered to wipe the window down, which worked well but he continued to converse with Tim the driver who was turning his head to look at Max and was making the rest of us very nervous! We were chanting “keep your eyes on the road” under our breath and I was praying for safety!
Tonight the Methven Maulers are hosting dinner for us at Samuel’s Saloon. There was supposed to be a game against the Maulers but for various reasons they were unable to field a team. It’s probably just as well. After a hard day on the snow, there’ll be some sound sleep tonight. Let’s hope there’s no fire in Methven this evening!
